Writing my first eBook was a big deal. I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I published it on my website and I watched as the downloads went up and up and up. The feedback was awesome and I truly felt a sense of achievement. That was my first big ass lead magnet that doubled my list in six months.

Since then, I’ve created tons of lead magnets. Some of them have fallen flat. Other have made a significant impact in my lead generate efforts. Today, we’re going to explore the five key elements of a high converting lead magnet. The number one thing that will lead to your high converting lead magnet is research. Yes, boring, old, lab coat research.

See, you have to find out what your audience wants most. You can do this by creating polls inside Facebook groups. If you don’t have your own group, choose a group where the profile of the group members closely matches the profile of your ideal client. It’s not your favourite group, it’s your ideal client’s favourite group where you need to ask the questions.

The second thing that leads to your lead magnet being devoured is they have to be able to consume it within 5 to 10 minutes. You don’t have to write war and peace and you definitely don’t have to change their entire business or life in one go. You just have to solve one problem for them that demonstrates that you have the authority to help them create the success they want. Checklists, cheat sheets, blueprints, lists, swipe files and eBooks are all good option.

Number three, get your lead magnet laid out and professionally designed. A lead magnet that looks pretty and has your professional branding on it creates authority immediately. You increase the trust your client has in your capability and you become one step closer to signing up a paying client. You don’t have to spend a fortune hiring the best designer you know. Go to Fiverr.com or Upwork.com and get someone who’s competent who can handle your job and who understands your brand but it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Number four, have a follow-up plan. Your lead magnet is only the start of the relationship with a person who downloads it. What is your plan to turn that person into a client? What emails are they going to receive after they download it? How are you going to add even more value to them so that they get to know, like and trust you? What is the offer you’ll be making to them to turn them into a paying client?

Your lead magnet is the start of your sales funnel. Your offer is the end. Make sure you have a plan for what goes in the middle. Number five, promote, promote, promote. Put your lead magnet everywhere your ideal client interacts with you. That includes your website and every social media platform you have a presence on. Do a huge push when you just launch your new lead magnet and then create social media posts that you can periodically use to remind people about your awesome free thing you’ve got for them.

There you have it, folks. Five easy steps to creating a high converting lead magnet. Don’t be afraid to play around and taste different options until you land on the one that works best for you and your ideal customer. The most important thing is that you keep taking action. Share this video with an inspiring online marketing superhero who’s creating their first lead magnet right now. Have a Facebook fabulous week. Bye.

Going live on Facebook or sending videos of yourself into the wide open world of social media can be damn scary. I’m here to tell you today, that if you’re feeling nervous about going live on Facebook or creating videos on Facebook, that feeling is perfectly normal. Just hearing my own voice on camera still makes me cringe and I’ve been doing it for more than a year now. Do I really sound like that? I don’t sound like that in my head.

So, if you’ve been feeling a little bit nervous about using video to promote your business, you’re in the right place. Because, today I’m going to share with you my three best tips for overcoming your fear of being on camera, and I’m going to leave you feeling confident and motivated, and ready to pick up your phone, start making videos and get your incredibly important message out into the world.

Here’s tip number one. If I told you today, that with the same amount of effort, you can choose whether you reach a 100 of your ideal customers or a 1,000. Which one would you choose? You would choose a 1,000, of course, because your message matters and you want to get it out to as many people as possible, as fast as you can, with as little effort as possible. And, that is the power of video. Videos reach more people in the newsfeed. It creates an opportunity for connexion. And, it engages people on a level that photo and text just cannot do.

If you’re someone who helps other people in your business, maybe you’re a coach who guides people to a better life or business, or you’re a trainer who helps people achieve greater success. Surely, you want to use what is available to you to reach as many people as possible. Getting in front of the camera means you get to reach more people who are waiting to hear from you. You get to build stronger connexions with them and make a much bigger impact in the world. So, when you’re feeling nervous about going on camera, remind yourself that you’re choosing to reach a 1,000 people instead of a 100. That means, you get to make 10 times the impact you’ll make with photos and text only.

The second way to build your confidence when you’re going on camera, is to keep in mind who you’re talking to. I keep a picture of Vanessa, my ideal client, on the wall in my office, to remind me that every single thing I do, is so that Vanessa can find me. When my monkey mind comes along, you know, that voice that sometimes creeps in and starts sharing messages of self-doubt and judgement , and rubbish that we believe about ourselves, that is simply not true. I remind myself, “That I am here to serve Vanessa, and Vanessa only, and she needs to hear from me. I need to show up for her. And, anyone else’s opinions do not matter.”

I remind myself, “That she loves and appreciates me. That she wants to hear my message. That she values what I share. That I make a difference to her life and to her business.” I remind myself, “That I am here to add value to Vanessa. And, that if I quit, or I don’t show up, or I don’t publish that video, because I was feeling a little bit off that day. I am not serving Vanessa’s best interest.” I don’t want Vanessa to miss out, because one day, I choose to play a small game and choose my ego over serving her.

That one mindset shift motivates me enough to get my ass in front of the camera, deliver like my life depends on it, and publish that video, knowing I’m making a difference to her. So, I can put my ego, that monkey mind, back in its rightful place, and be who I need to be, so that I can help her find me. Because really, in the end, this is not about me. When you’re making a video, it’s not about you. It’s about who you serve and how you show up to serve them.

Tip number three is a very practical and pragmatic tip. Invest in some red lipstick. Get good, natural light and hold your phone at a flattering angle. We all know, that feeling of confidence and pride when we walk out of the door, and we know we are looking our best and we’re feeling our best today. I want you to feel like you’re representing the best version of yourself on video. Unfortunately, the camera washes us out and makes us look a little bit duller than we really are. So, enhance your look with a little bit of red lippy.

Good, natural light coming directly from the front, will illuminate your natural beauty, and it will eliminate any dark shadows that may make you look a little bit tired. Holding your camera at slightly above eye level is the most flattering angle for all of us. Watch out for the up-the-nostril angle when you’re balancing your phone on the computer in front of you or on the table in front of you.

Please remember, that nobody’s expecting you to look perfect on camera. We want to see your flaws. We want to see you for who you are. We want to connect and feel we can associate with you. And, if you’re perfect, we can’t do that. So, show up as you. Be who you are and show us who you are. We are, so often, our own worst critics, and we see flaws in ourselves other people would never, ever see. Don’t focus on that. Remember, to focus on who you’re here to serve and why it matters to reach them. If you follow these three simple steps, you’ll show up with confidence. You’ll know you’re here to make a difference, and you’ll know that you’re using the best possible medium to make the biggest impact you can make in this world.

If you’ve been thinking about making video, and you know now is the time to start, I want to hear from you. Please, share with me, what is the first step you’ll be taking to start creating videos on Facebook, so that you can reach more people and make a bigger impact in the world? Remember, sharing is caring, so tag someone in the comments who need to hear this message today. Thank you very much for watching. Have a Facebook fabulous week. See you next week.

Did you know there are eight billion video views on Facebook every single day? That’s right, eight billion. That’s more than there are people on this planet. That’s a hell of a lot of eyeballs watching video on Facebook every single day. Back in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is going to become a video only platform, and my newsfeed is filling up with more and more video every single day. If your customers are on Facebook, and they’re watching videos, question is are they watching your videos? If you’re not ready to go and start a video blog or appear in front of the camera, that’s okay. There are plenty of other ways you can add value to your followers with video.

Today I’m going to share with you some of my favourite apps you can use to get started making videos, so you can add value to your followers. Two of my favourite desktop apps to create videos is Adobe Spark and Animoto. Adobe Spark allows you to combine photos, videos, text and voice overlay to create stories of your own. It’s an easy to use drag and drop interface, and it’s very simple to get started. The drawback with Spark is you can’t brand your videos in your branded colours or with your branded fonts. However, it is free and very simple to start with. Animoto has a small price tag. For $40 a month you can get access to many, many, many beautiful video templates. Drag and drop your photos, videos, and text onto the template and voila, a beautiful video slideshow.

With some of the templates you can even customise the colours and the fonts, so you still have that branded look. I absolutely adore Animoto, and if you’re going to be creating videos regularly, I highly encourage you to invest in this program. On my mobile phone, I love using Ripl, Legend and Spark Post. To add moving text over photos, Ripl has a paid version and a free version. With the paid version you get access to hundreds of templates every month. Legend is easy to use, and I absolutely love the moving text that they have. Legend has preset colours and colour combinations, so again a bit of a challenge if your brand colours is not available on their template. However, I have a workaround. I add a filter to my photos in my branded colours, and then just use the black and white text or a colour text that matches my branding.

Spark Post is easy to use and comes with thousands of beautiful templates you can use. You can also access thousands of free stock photos on Spark Post. Now a vlog about video apps wouldn’t be complete if I don’t share my absolute love for the app, Snapchat. I adore that Instagram stories and Messenger is now also coming onboard, adding filters, stickers, fun colours, fun ways we can personalise our videos, but be careful to overuse those filters. Rather, be creative in how you use the filters to complement each other to tell your story. Otherwise, you end up looking like everyone else who’s wearing the cat filter. That’s it for today, folks. Please let me know in the comments which video apps are your favourite to get started creating videos on Facebook. While you’re down there, share this video with another friend who wants to start creating videos on Facebook. Have a Facebook fabulous week. Bye.

Facebook is pay to play platform. I’m sure you’ve heard that before. But what do you do if your ideal customer is on Facebook (whose isn’t) but you don’t yet have the budget to run paid advertising?

Today I’ll be counting down the top 10 ways you can boost your reach on Facebook without boosting your post:

10. Post quality content. We are bombarded with content all day so make sure your content stands out in the newsfeed, gets noticed and is of value to your audience. Take a look at your insights tab at which of your posts performed well in the past, and create more like that! Quality is better than quantity so focus on creating content that inspires, educates and informs your audience!

9. Try posting at different times to increase your reach. Perhaps the best time for you to post is at 5 pm just before the majority of your fans come online. Or maybe you could try posting at some ridiculous time like 4 am when there will be far less noise in the newsfeed and if it’s a good quality post that gets engagement from a handful of your followers you’ll end up reaching far more people than you would have if you had to compete with peak time noise!

8. Mix it up. If you are only sharing updates on what’s currently happening in the office, you are only reaching followers who care about that. Or maybe you’re posting different photos of your product every day. BORING!! Mix up the type of content, so use photos, videos and links posts to engage different audiences in your community. Maybe add a live video to the mix now and then to liven things up! Create a mix between educational content and entertaining content. Your audience wants to get to know you but they also want to learn from you.

7. Spend quality time understanding your Insights. A wise woman once said, “If you don’t measure it, you don’t want it”. So study what you see in the Insights tab and do more of what you learn is working. Things you want to be paying attention to is which posts are getting engagement, what type of posts are they and at what time were they posted? Look at who your followers are and ask yourself if that’s a match to who you thought they were. Are they interacting on their mobiles or on desktop? What does this tell you about how you should be reaching them? Create some goals for yourself based on what you learn in the Insights tab. Perhaps you should try to get more clicks on your call to action button, maybe increase your reach or grow your likes by a certain number. Give yourself a goal and a purpose to build more engagement on your page.

6. Create strong visual branding. Can your followers recognize a post that comes from your business at first glance? Do you use strong visual elements that have become synonymous with your brand? Is your logo visible, do you use the same font and the same colours consistently? By building a strong and consistent visual brand you have a better chance of standing out in the newsfeed and creating engagement with your loyal followers.

5. People want to connect with people. When someone engages with your content they want to know that their engagement matters. Be sure to acknowledge everyone who comments and start a conversation with them about what they said. It’s called social media, because it’s social, so be social!

4. Recycle your best posts. If you created an amazing post that got tons of engagement and it is an evergreen post then repost it every now and then. Only a fraction of your audience will have seen it the first time around and chances are that your audience has grown significantly since you last posted it. So share it again!

3. Became a valuable resource to your audience in your niche. Let’s say you sold eyebrow sculpting. Chances are that your audience is also into things like beauty and fashion and make-up. Share valuable content with them from other content creators where you may have an overlapping interest. No one is only interested in the one single think you peddle. They have broader interests so tap into those and become a source of educations and inspiration to them in this broader field.

2. Create a content plan, If you wake up every morning and have to decide what you’re going to post on Facebook today, I guarantee you will run out of speed in about 6 weeks, if you even last that long. Decide what you’ll post ahead of time and batch create the content. This will free up your time to engage more with your audience, allow you to be more strategic in what you create and give you a body of work you can use to repurpose on other platforms too.

1. And now for number one way to create more organic engagement on Facebook. …. I’m going to let you guess this one… if you’ve been hanging out with me here for a while you know exactly what I’m going to tell you is the no1 way to create organic posts on Facebook. …drumtroll… GO LIVE!! Facebook is spending gijillions of dollars to promote the use of the live feature and I can honestly tell you that it is the easiest way to build an engaged community right here on Facebook.

If you’ve never gone live and you would like some support I have a ton of free resources for you inside my private Facebook community called The Shine Community. You can access the group by clicking HERE
If you know someone who wants to grow their organic reach on Facebook then tag them or share this video with them.

That’s all for today folks, thank you for watching and continue to be #FacebookFabulous!!